Each type of listing, whether it is organic or paid, has a marketing plan connected with it.
Search engine optimization
As explained in a previous post, search engine optimization (SEO) involves organizing a website, so it will rank highly in the search engine’s organic results. In addition to other factors that assist with ranking.
Search engine marketing
Search engine marketing (SEM) is the method of promoting a website on the search engine using paid listings. In order to use search engine marketing, one would need to create an account with the search engine’s advertising product. For Google, this would be AdWords. Once the account is created, one can set their ads to be activated by keywords when the user enters in the query.
Most ads on the search engines manage on a pay-per-click (PPC) model. This means that the advertiser only pays when the ad is clicked. There is no charge for the impression of an ad. The impression means when the ad appears on the page because it was triggered by the user’s search.
The other pricing model for online advertising is the cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM). This is when the advertiser would pay for the impression of their ad. In other words, when the user enters in the query, the advertiser is charged for their ad appearing on the search. They are charged whether or not the ad is actually clicked by the user.
In addition to optimizing a website organically, many owners choose to use paid advertising as well. Even though the website owners are paying for the clicks or impressions or their website to appear, it allows them to become proactive. When signing for a paid advertisement, such as AdWords, their ads can run almost immediately.
